Tuesday, March 8, 2011

International Women's Day

This morning I woke up to an unsurprisingly inaccurate column from Margaret Wente aimed at Western privileged women, in which she argues that “the war for women’s rights is over. And we won.” Right. She writes:

People who persist in looking for systemic discrimination against women in (name your field here) seem more and more desperate. They might as well complain about discrimination against male kindergarten teachers. We are finally learning that equality can also mean the freedom to make different choices.

Funny that Wente should base her column on the freedom to make choices, given the persistence of rampant sexism in the West. Here are just a few examples from now and a few years back:

* Charlie Sheen, a man with a most appalling history of violence against women, was recently fired from Two and Half Men and is benefiting from endless media coverage of his clearly troubled behaviour. He gained the most Twitter followers in the least amount of time, memes popped up everywhere parroting his phrases like “winning” and “tiger blood,” and ad agencies have jumped all over his “branding.” Did you know you can be paid to be Sheen’s intern?

According to research conducted under the Native Women Association of Canada’s (NWAC) Sisters in Spirit program, over 580 Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing, most of them over the last 30 years.

* Conflict and the rape crisis in the Congo continues. Hundreds of thousands of women have been raped since 1996, and it goes on and on. * The Catholic Church in Rome admitted that priests from at least 23 countries have been sexually abusing nuns, mostly in Africa, to avoid the transmission of HIV. * A Manitoba judge said a survivor was to blame for her rape because “sex was in the air,” since she was wearing a tube top without a bra and suggested skinny dipping. (Wente argues that not one person agreed with this judge, but um, the fact that he exists is proof enough, yes? Also, have a look at the comments on that article. There are many who agreed with him.) * A shocking number of media sources blame Lara Logan for her sexual assault, leading to claims that female journalists shouldn’t report in war zones. * Linda Franklin, an active duty U.S. Marine sergeant, was beaten and strangled in 2007 by her then-partner, a staff sergeant. A year later, she found herself reporting to her attacker. * During a recent student election at University of Waterloo, posters were placed over those of female candidates. The posters depicted Marie Curie and read: “THE TRUTH. The brightest woman this Earth ever created was Marie Curie, the mother of the nuclear bomb. You tell me if the plan of women leading men is still a good idea.” * Toronto law students are given the following advice from a police officer on how to avoid being raped: “Don’t dress like a slut.”

And how about that war on reproductive rights?

* Last year, an unprecedented number of people gathered at Parliament Hill in support of Harper’s decision to not include contraception, family planning, or abortion in Canada’s foreign maternal health plan. I feel it necessary to note that children were bussed to this event. * Virginia passed a bill that requires abortion clinics to comply to hospital standards such as: parking spaces for every patient, hallways through which two gurneys can pass simultaneously, etc. 17 of 21 clinics in the state will have to close. * Faith2Action, a pro life group, is being allowed to have a fetus testify against an Ohio abortion law. * South Dakota passed a bill requiring women seeking abortions wait 72 hours and submit to counselling that encourages them not to. * Also in South Dakota, a bill is under consideration in the Mount Rushmore State that would make preventing harm to a fetus “justifiable homicide.” * If you want an abortion, you better be rich! The House Judiciary voted in favour of the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. Oh! And by the way, the House also wanted to redefine rape as “forcible.” * Planned Parenthood, a.k.a. that awesome place to get contraception and counselling, has been defunded. * A Georgia representative proposes that all “unsupervised miscarriages” be treated as crime scenes. Send him your pads/tampons/Diva cups, y’all.

So um, yes Wente, the war on women exists. All of my griping and whining matters. And everything we do here at Shameless matters. And that’s what International Women’s Day is all about.

Followers

"For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?" -bell hooks